Short answer: AI Search is not an alternative to the default WordPress search – it is an upgrade layered on top of it. Everything the default search finds, you keep, in the same order of priority. AI Search adds what it misses: results matched by meaning instead of exact words.
How does the default WordPress search work?
The built-in search looks for your search words as literal text inside the title, content and excerpt – and every word must appear. It has real strengths: it is instant, free, and predictable. But it has hard limits: no synonyms (“sneakers” never finds “trainers”), no cross-language matching, no tolerance for descriptive queries (“warm jacket for hiking”), and product SKUs are not searched at all.
What changes when you install AI Search?
Your results page gets three tiers. First, exact matches: a query that equals a product SKU or title is pinned to the top – something the default search cannot do for SKUs at all. Second, every traditional keyword match the default search would find, ranked by keyword relevance instead of publish date. Third, AI results: products that mean what the shopper asked for, even with zero word overlap, appended below. Your search form, URLs and templates stay untouched.
Side by side
| WordPress default search | With AI Search installed | |
|---|---|---|
| Exact keyword matches | Found | Found – same results, ranked by relevance |
| SKU / product code search | Not searched | Exact and partial matches pinned first |
| Synonyms (“trainers” vs “sneakers”) | No match | Matched by meaning |
| Descriptive queries (“gift for a cook”) | Usually empty | Semantically matched products |
| Cross-language queries | No match | Matched (100+ languages) |
| Result ordering | Mostly by date | Exact, then keyword relevance, then AI |
| Cost | Free | Free up to 10,000 embeddings |
| Uninstall risk | – | None – deactivate and you are back to default |
When is the default search enough?
If your catalog is small, your product names match what customers type, and your shoppers all search in one language, the default search may serve you fine. The honest test: look at what visitors type into your search box. If descriptive queries, codes or other languages show up, the default search is silently failing some of them.
Bottom line
You do not choose between them – AI Search keeps the default search’s results and fixes its blind spots. It is free up to 10,000 products, needs no API key, and deactivating restores the default behaviour instantly.
Last updated: August 2026.
Need AI Search customized for your project?
Custom ranking rules, integrations, migrations or a search audit – the plugin’s author takes on a limited number of client projects.
This link takes you to samuelsilva.pt, the personal site of Samuel Silva – AI Search’s developer and the right person for AI search customization on your project.